CASE STUDY: Glittered Chelsea Boots

This month we’ll show you how to keep the sparkle in your life and put your best foot forward ensuring you leave those January blues behind!

We’ve kept it in The Restory family for our January case study; the spotlights on our Head of Atelier, Thaís and her beloved Chelsea boots. Thaís is behind the many masterful restoration & re-imagine projects we are proud to have worked on so it made a refreshing change for her to work her magic on a pair of shoes that she can enjoy by actually wearing them! This case study came about from a little accident in our Atelier – black dye was spilt on Thaís’s burgundy Chelsea boots, the dye quickly soaked into the leather leaving a visible and irremovable stain.

Since then the boots were put to one side until one day, inspiration struck! Glitter was the answer! It’s no longer limited to party shoes; we’re seeing a glitter trend across all footwear from fancy going-out styles to casual everyday trainers. Glitter was a great way to bring the boots back to life and have some fun by literally bringing sparkle to Thaís’s life.

Victoria Beckham SS18

Dries Van Noten SS18

COLOUR-ME

The dye spilt on the leather boots was black, so the first step was to dye the rest of the boot black, to create an even colour, so the black stain disappeared. This is basically a full re-colour so technically the process could stop there but that would be far less fun!

RE-IMAGINE

So remembering Thaís wore the boots as an everyday shoe, her final design featured a glitter finish on the front of the boots only, leaving the back plain black leather. She felt this would keep them as an easy to wear style, but much more interesting. To create a good texture and depth for the glitter front, two types of glitter were selected – one with a fine powder like finish and the other with a more thick visible shine that would catch the light effectively.

The black glitter was applied in thin coats with several layers required. It was mixed with a leather paint composition to ensure the glitter would keep maximum sparkle power at all times! We wouldn’t want to loose anything to the floor so a last finishing paint was applied to seal the joy!

ADMIRE

After a quick conditioning treatment with a specialist wax for the back of the Chelsea boot, it was time to stand back and admire our in house re-imagine project. It’s official: you name it, we can glitter it. Our head of Atelier is so taken with her new-look boots she’s on the hunt for more glittering projects – now’s the time to book your collection. What else can we glitter?

If you have any ideas you'd like to explore with our Atelier team please just get in touch.